MySpace has won a record payout of £117m in the US
againstspammerson its social
network.
MySpace won its court case against US spammers Sanford Wallace
and Walter Rines.
The payout, the largest ever under the
CAN-SPAM
Act, means that Sanford "Spamford" Wallace and his business
partner Walter Rines are obliged to refund the social networking
website for the cost of handling more than 700,000 junk messages,
and for the cost of handling complaints it received from its
users.
Wallace is already known on the web as a prolific money-making
spammer.
The court heard that the duo created MySpace accounts and stole
passwords through phishing to commandeer existing ones to send
their spam messages.
The spammers made money through advertising and the selling of
goods such as ringtones.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at web security firm
Sophos, said, "The judgment against the spammers is astronomical,
because under the terms of the CAN-SPAM law each spam message
entitles MySpace to £50 in damages.
"That triples when the spam is sent 'willfully and knowingly'.
In the war against spam it is right that large companies suffering
should have a heavy stick like this to hit the spammers with," he
said.